Watford 0 - 2 Brighton & Hove Albion - 12/02/2022

In truth it was even more amazing than that because the revival didn’t begin until there were only 11 games left. There then followed a sequence of ten games, seven wins, two draws and only one defeat, culminating in the win at Oxford that kept us up.

 

And their sssistants

 

We are the new Swansea or Stoke . Owners did well at first but then bought badly and couldn't stop the rot when the extra cash was wasted. It was fun being competitive but ultimately the wages catch up eventually as we overpaid players out of blind loyalty and wasted on players not suited for whatever formation change an incoming manager brought in.

Xisco might aswell have been given the season. At least most of the negativity was consigned to the shoutbox.

Two aging managers in a row and its now a big time open season on the disconnect.

 

Not much, I suspect that they are on the equivalent of zero hours contracts. It's not like we're attracting top managerial talent.

 

Looking at the comments here I've been asking myself "why have we had such a rough few years and seem to have a sub 50pct success with player signings, besides which only one in 3 ever plays up to the expectation expected of them when they sign. So in my mind it a mix of two things;
1) GP effectively takes a big gamble on most signings hoping to unearth some gems.
2) our squad then bigs itself up and completely over eggs their confidence and ability, thinking they can outclass several teams in the prem. There's an unjustified and tacky arrogance that exudes from our squad in recent years and in real life it's totally unjustified.!
Teams like Burnley, Southampton and Brighton have shown us over and over how they apply themselves (and beat us most of the time) they get stuck in and give their all.
If you watch our guys they expect to play silky football with cheeky passing a d flicks but the hard working teams know exactly how to stop us.!
Then the next issue is that our guys only seem "fit enough" to put in the real energy for 15 minutes in any half. Why can't we play one-twos up and down the pitch and get stuck in for most of 90 minutes.????
Arrogance? Why????

 

This drives me constantly mental, and I've whined about it multiple times - even yesterday when we were down a goal, we had the usual succession of side foot flicks and between the legs no look passes/controls, all that went completely wrong and lost us possession.

We are so careless with the ball and sloppy in possession it's insane, and so much of comes from this inexplicable cocky showboat bullshyt. Where they're getting the idea that that is appropriate from, I haven't the faintest idea.

Perhaps they're desperate attempts to detach themselves from the mess and convince any watching scouts they're skilful/technical enough players for another team to purchase?

 

It is my opinion that we have spent too much time trying to unearth the next young no.10 / attacking player as opposed to finding the next young CB\ DMC etc . We have an abundance of young talent that cannot all be accommodated in the same team but a dearth of quality nuts and bolts type players .
Maybe I'm wrong and someone can explain where I am wrong ?

 

We do things properly, mate.

 

You aren’t wrong, of course you aren’t. We, the fans have been conditioned by the owners via their communication department - onside podcasters and journalists, that there is ‘no money in defenders’. A fallacy also peddled by loud members of this forum whenever the question was asked.

 

I agree .
If we could find a 19 y.o. Ashley Cole. Get 3 or 4 seasons out of him. Sell him on . Then surely that is a win win for us ?

 

There was an especially delicious irony in it being Adam fuccking Webster who was the one to score the game-sealing second goal against us. Not only assuring we would barely have a sniff of a goal of our own, but violently patting us on the head by crashing in a finish of his own up the other end. Why would we ever have paid the money required when he was leaving Bristol City, and we were the more established Prem team, eh?

 

Yep There's plenty of potentially decent players below the prem but we never seem interested in them unless they can be bought for under £2mil...
Look at brentford...

 

You can buy all the great players you like, but when the coach changes every 3 months, and play changes from pressing to standing off, playing out from the back to going long, 3 at the back to 4, midfield 3 to 2, 3 up top to 2, full backs to wing backs... and then the whole thing changes again in 3 months...

 

It's a big ask to unearth the best English left back of all time. He joined Arsenal at 16, when they were the 2nd biggest team in the country and made his debut for them at 18. I'm not sure how WFC wouldve fitted into his plans. If he had been on our books at 16 no doubt he'd have moved on to a big club in his teens like with Jadon Sancho. In our entire history we've only ever had 1 player that was a better footballer than Ashley Cole. It's a pretty tall order to ask Gino to start unearthing generational English talents and keeping then at the club.

 

...... You rate Lloyd Doyley that highly ?? .....

 

I agree. Almen Abdi was beyond special.

 

100%

 

I used to be optimistic about our chances of surviving relegation this season, but all that optimism died off when I saw our lineup for the home game to Brighton. Am not totally against Cleverley and Kucko playing on the wings though I will like Roy to fit in Kalu who has a similar defensive ability but a better attacker in that position. The way we are being setup to play away from home will eventually see us steal some 1:0 wins and get some unexpected draws which if we put them together won't be a bad away form for a team trying to escape relegation. The biggest challenge we will face is Roy still setting us up to be defensive when playing at home in winnable games. So where will the points needed for survival come from? I already gave up before the Brighton game started so I think that explains why this weekend wasn't as **** at it usually used to be after we lose a game. Am looking forward to us playing in the championship next season, I believe we will win it.

Sent from my TECNO P701 using Tapatalk

 

I get what your saying, and all I'm suggesting is fans should be more open minded to the prospect we'll likely improve, which could be enough to stay up. I think Hodgson probably got it wrong for the Brighton game, however, he's still learning about the squad. The team played well at Burnley and at high flying West Ham, so I don't blame him for picking the same side. I can understand why he did it. He didn't know Louza, as he was back late from AFCON, so again, I'll be understanding why he didn't start him. Going by his post-match presser I think Louza impressed him.

So I do think he'll use different players for the winnable home games and will be a bit more attack minded in the future. Maybe the pragmatic approach will continue in the away games, and I'm fine with that.

From the remaining games, there are 6 I don't really expect us to get too much from. Pretty much all the away games apart from Palace, which I think we would have a good chance of winning if we played well. We've got a decent chance of winning ALL remaining home games, if we play well, and this is what I'm pinning my hopes on.

 

It’s the main reason we’re failing, because Gino’s model no longer works and he hasn’t adapted with the times. We gradually traded up in in player values whilst we remained in the PL culminating in spending £40m on Sarr with presumably the idea we could sell him for £80m, but we’ll be lucky to get £25m for him. There was a period when a few crazy release clauses were triggered and players were selling for £200m+, but things have calmed down now and flattened out, the very top players got for £50-£100m regardless of position. Basically you can get good money for decent players in any position now, whether that be a GK or a CB. The model of buying attacking midfielders because they spin the most profit is now completely outdated and significantly harming the club, due to chronic under investment in key areas that could still turn Gino a tidy profit. Unfortunately he’s stuck in the same tired rut trying to buy the same players, while we get relegated and lose £100m+ completely wiping out any profits from the player trading model, and having to sell assets at below market value.

 

How was Louza back late from AFCON? He was back training at London Colney on 2 Feb... before the Burnley game.

 

No player has sold for £200m+ mate. Neymar fell just short of that. In fact, there’s only ever been 10 transfers over £100m.

I’d love to know the thought process behind the Sarr transfer. I assume they saw the Dembele transfer and thought he was a similar standard. Although Dembele was overpriced by about £75m.

Out and out pacey wingers without much more to their game seem a dying breed at the top level.

 

Yeah I couldn’t remember what Neymar and Coutinho went for but couldn’t be bothered to check. I knows it’s slightly different due to the release clause but even Halland is going to be available for £70m and he’s one of the best attacking players on the world.

 

Lord it's depressing!
I got drenched yesterday in a mixed match and came home to watch Tsitsi play almost as poorly as we did.
I shall compose another email to Gino that will not receive a reply.
I know it's a different era but I wrote to GT on many occasions as did my brothers. We always received a reply,hand written and almost immediately.
I have no belief that he will reply,not even send something formulaic from the twelve year olds in the marketing department. I will not renew my season ticket until I see some change in method and the realization that Duxbury has to be the first casualty of this decline.

 

Swap deal for Sarr?

 

Would destroy the champo

 

I'm surprised you don't understand how it works. Hodgson would have been preparing for the Burnley in advance of Louza coming back, so it's unlikely he'd have thrown in a player he knew nothing about. He would have only seen him in a couple of training sessions, most likely. We played well and shaded the game at Burnley and he decided he wasn't required.

There wouldn't have been too much training in between Burnley and West Ham. Sunday would have been a rest day and Monday would have been light training in prep for West Ham on the Tuesday. We played well again at West Ham, but he did use him for the final 13 minutes.

You see, Louza missed the boat in the early thinking of the coach because he wasn't there during the lead up to the Burnley game because he was late back from AFCON, hence the quote you picked me up on. We performed well in both games so it made sense to keep the faith in those guys for the Brighton game. When he saw it wasn't working, he changed it and gave Louza his chance, which he took.

Going forward, if Hodgson decides to drop Louza, I think he will open himself up to criticism, but for now, I believe it was an understandable view he took.

 

If performing well in two games means 0 goals and 1 point, I dread to think what will happen when we hit a bad patch.

 

Ah, but it was one point, wasn't it? A world of difference.

 

Yes, had a brain fart, just edited.

 

Cannot get my head round people saying we are building something and improving.

Burnley was fine, steady the ship in horrible conditions, get a point and a clean sheet under your belt.

West Ham was worrying, very passive. One chance from Kucka but they hit the post twice and were good value for the win. We were ok in the first half but it was one way traffic in the second.

Brighton was an abomination. We ceded all initiative, possession and territory to them and that first 45 minutes was worse than anything served up under Ranieri or Xisco. Made the changes we needed and had a little spell of pressure but Potter reacted and that was that, back to them easily controlling the game.

We are getting worse, not better. And by starting with two attackers on the pitch Hodgson is pretty much telling the squad they're not good enough. His famed boring and repetitive training drills are all well and good if you're picking points and looking competitive but it won't be long before he loses the dressing room if he carries on deliberately choosing teams and tactics to avoid defeat and we limply lose anyway.

 

Email sent.
Blasted autocorrect made 'its' into 'it's' but as it will be deleted before they get past the first par I don't suppose it matters!

 

The thing is, from my perspective it may be a bit of faith I'm going on and I get where you're coming from with the performance against Brighton. However, I'm going on the track record of Roy and Ray. I'm looking at how much better we are at left back, I'm going on Sarr being reintroduced into the side. I'm looking at the quality of Samir. There are tangible reasons to expect improvement.

It's likely to be an evolution, rather than revolution, but I think we'll dramatically improve as a result of it. Admittedly, after Brighton it's a harder sell, but I still see signs we are on the right track and I totally agree with Roy's assessment on the strikers. They tend to over elaborate. They need to be prepared to take the early shot when the chance presents itself. They don't need to do a little trick to beat another defender. All that does is run the risk of losing the ball or other defenders getting into position. Reducing the time in taking your shot is always the best policy to score goals.

We're make ourselves harder to break down, which we've done in 2 of Hodgson's 3 games. So that's an improvement. We now need to stamp our personality on the match going forward. We've got the players who can do it.

 

Appreciate we're looking at through glass half full/glass half empty lenses respectively.

The key to me is what he does with Sarr. If we set up the same way, we might as well not bother.

And agree on the taking shots point. We are taking quite a few low percentage ones from a long way out but not pulling the trigger quickly enough in the box which is probably a confidence thing.

Anyway, here's to hoping you're right and I'm wrong, we'll all be a lot happier if that comes to pass.

 

And he shat out for the second goal, the cross was an easy header, but he sees Sissoko coming towards him and ducks and turns his back.